[Closed] How can we get people to shovel snow?

we could all join hands around the world?

My sister in law lives in Germany and there it's the householder's responsibility to keep the pavement clear outside their house.

I used to be one of two or three in my road that used to shovel snow, but don't bother now.

Next door neighbour moaned about the piles I made, but then his missus took a tumble on the ice on their driveway/adjacent pavement.

Some woman said I'd get sued if someone slipped on the bit I'd cleared!? How stupid!

Lazy, the lot of them!

Play some tunes

cos most peaople wouldn't even think of such a practical solution, they'd rather just get in their nice warm cars and spin the wheels round a bit and then complain that they can't move

'Cos it's funnier to watch all the people with their giant rwd cars and heavy right feet fail to turn round at the end of our culdesac.

I was out clearing our drive the other night; watching people revving madly while their cars slid about and bounced off every kerb in sight was so funny I stayed out and cleared lots of pavement too. 🙂

How can we persudae people to do this? Some sort of advertising campaign?

knock on the door and ask them.

alternatively you could try and organise something on the internet in the hope they may see...

nibbles, everyone likes nibbles

I did our bit and the house next door in case the old lady there needed to come ans ask for shopping etc .One other person did their house about 6 doors up but no one else bothered

Suppose it depends on the people you live near,on our street for the last few years since the council stopped bothering to grit it we have all come out with snow shovels to clear the street.
We are on a hill so its impossible to get up when it snows without a 4x4 ,so most neighbours chip in.

I did our house and a couple of elderly neighbours the other day.

nibbles, everyone likes nibbles

Dibbs +1

Needs a change in the law in UK to make it a responsibility.

Not necessarily the householder, in the case of apartments and mixed use buildings. Mine is the responsibility of the caretaker of the building, and is written in to the deeds (declaration of partition) of the property stating this. Think they have to clear a 1m wide path and grit by 12 noon (or something like that).

This scheme seems to have worked OK in Bristol recent. It wasn't anything like city-wide, but the pavements in some of the steeper bits were kept clear.

http://www.bristol.gov.uk/page/community-and-safety/volunteer-be-snow-warden

I spent hours clearing a path around mine a couple of years back (snow was about six inches deep when compacted), only for the council's pavement snow plough tractor thing to do a far better job in a few seconds when it came along later that day.

This year, they've been around again so I've not even needed to bother.

Pay people?

Might help if they changed 'It's unlikely' to 'You will not' on this statement:
[b]

You can clear snow and ice from pavements yourself. It’s unlikely that you’ll be sued or held responsible if someone is injured on a path or pavement if you’ve cleared it carefully.

i live at the bottom of the road at the junction and bottom of hill

i do my drive ,pavement directly outside and the road/junction

the act of doing so seems to have got others out doing theirs .....

I cleared 100 Metres of our road with one other chap in his 60's... My better half kept the teas coming and it took us 3 hours between us.

Not one word of thanks from people coming out to move their cars once they'd noticed they could get up our hill and off the estate. Was pretty shocked that no one came out and offered to help, I could see the work dodgers looking out of their windows at us.

I did about 20 houses worth from below ours to the main road at the top of our hill.

Someone from lower down moaned that I had stopped. I said just knock on the door when you want to borrow my tools! Cheeky buggers.

I cleared the road in front of my house, and off the little hill thats not long but steep enough to cause bother when its icy/ snowy.

Didn't get a Blue Peter badge though so i'm not doing it again.

I live on a hill.. there is a grit box at the top.. I'm the only person who bothers to actually go out and grit the road.. Over the years the area I grit has gradually shrunk from the whole street down to me and the adjacent houses.. sod em !

(+ I now have a 4x4) 😀

Company I work for is quite community minded, so our boss got together a gang of us to clear the pavements and main square of the village where we're based. We worked hard for about 4 hours, cleared the snow properly, even chipped away at the ice and gritted it all down etc and it's stayed properly clear and safe since as a result. Comments we got at the time were 50/50 between genuine gratitude and "you're doing a grand job there - well done" and the miserable sods saying "you do know you're not supposed to be doing that, don't you.... if it refreezes you'll be liable. " One of them from the old lady next door whose pathway I'd just spent 40 mins clearing... note she didn't make any comment until AFTER I'd cleared it though.

Came to the conclusion that even in a supposedly community orientated rural area like ours there are some properly mean-spirited gits about. Also made me wonder about what sort of lazy-arsed compensation culture we've become...

Why don't people bother to shovel snow outside their houses?

Mostly, it's because the prevailing attitude is that it's someone elses responsibility.

Then there's the fear of some local council jobsworth coming round stating that you've created a public hazard by moving the snow and issuing a fine for fly-tipping or some-such nonsense 🙄

I'm sure people would like to be more self-sufficient and take the initiative but the enthusiasm's been ground out of us through ridiculous council red-tape and stuff.

EDIT: I also think people don't trust their neighbours not to try and sue them for falling over because they cleared the snow wrongly or something.

I have a dedicated snow shovel, I can clear half my street in about 10 mins. It makes it so much easier than a normal shovel it's ridiculous.

Double post in fact I have two show shovels.

so if it only takes you 20mins to do the whole street whats the problem?

Last time we had some decent snow I cleared the snow from the speed bumps in the estate (well all the way to my house :D)

Me and two neighbours cleared a few drives as well. Didn't take long.

I'm sure we weren't the people in the estate with shovels bit it seemed that way.

Bottom line, most people are lazy and want things done for them

The jobsworth and liability thing is why it needs to be a change in the law.

The moment the law says you have to keep a path clear, there is no liability, but a legal obligation. There are liability issues and potential negligence in many things that get done (or don't get done). That's why you do a task to an acceptable standard.

So reading that link the rumour of you could get sued isn't hearsay its true anyone got any examples?

Also silly question but those Salt box's genuinely are there for us to use and not for the council to use? But are only to be used on the road not the pavement?

Luckily living in the Sunny Southwest we've only had one day of slight ice and that was from a hailstorm which quickly melted.

It's a good idea, but (serious answer)

- Some folk don't have a shovel. I have a little fold up one in the back of a car, but it's not much use if
- It snows overnight or during the day then freezes solid. I remember either last year or the year before trying to clear frozen snow (at the earliest possible opportunity) with a borrowed shovel and giving up as I was ruining the shovel and making no difference.

That said, hopefully by the time we next have snowmageddon I'll be self employed and working from home, so I probably will be out clearing. But I'm the type of person who puts everyone's bins away and even sometimes washes neighbours cars, so I might be a bit unusual.

How can we get people to shovel snow?

[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-21179069 ]Encourage them to make snowmen? OBVS[/url]

I am an elderly neighbour, thanks, and I'd be grateful. And btw someone's borrowed my shovel.

I am a resident in Germany and as stated early it is the owners responsibility to clear the snow from the pavements in front of your property. If you don't and someone slips and hurts themselves then you are liable. I was under the impression that it was the other way around in the UK. If you do clear the snow and someone slips then you are liable. Is this actually true?

Dibbs - Member
My sister in law lives in Germany and there it's the householder's responsibility to keep the pavement clear outside their house.

That's because Germany's society is superior to ours in every way.

I have a dedicated snow shovel, I can clear half my street in about 10 mins.

I wish mine was as dedicated. It's a lazy bugger which needs pushing around before it does any work, beside which it's in the shed and i can't get the shed door open because ...erm... of the snow and anyway, it's not my pavement. If you're so keen on clearing up stuff which isn't yours freom stuff which isn't your fault, start picking up some dog turds

When I was at school, me and a mate of mine used to go round all the local estates and offer to shovel snow off drives and pathways.

We never asked for money, but everybody gives us some. Made a small fortune.

Might help if they changed 'It's unlikely' to 'You will not' on this statement:

In the UK anyone can sue anyone for just about anything. The issue is whether they are likely to be successful or not......

Because I like the snow outside my house, makes me feel all warm and cosy when I look at it from indoors, I shall be leaving it exactly where it is.

Rarely get any snow so its nice to see

OAPs should be prepared for the bad weather and have plenty of provisions in kitchen cupboards so they dont have to venture out therefore no need to remove snow.

A metal shovel cost a tenner from Mole Valley Farmers and is much better than one of those plastic things from a supermarket ,especially once the snow has hardened

I can see a 'What Shovel - Snow Content' thread popping up soon.

OAPs should be prepared for the bad weather and have plenty of provisions in kitchen cupboards so they dont have to venture out therefore no need to remove snow.

They may have run out of powdered milk and egg from the war though, and pemmican

Because I like the snow outside my house, makes me feel all warm and cosy when I look at it from indoors, I shall be leaving it exactly where it is.

+1. I don't expect anyone to clear it for me. I'm happy to leave it where it is. As far as I can remember no-one's ever shovelled snow on my road, and everyone's fine with that (the road itself gets gritted, the stuff on pavements gets left where it is).

I can see a 'What Shovel - Snow Conentent' thread popping up soon